Hide cleaner



Oct. 7, 1958 w. H. WELLS ETAL I 2,

HIDE CLEANER 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 29, 1956 INVENTQRS William 15. Q Finn/3' d'fiezezzedezzi Oct. 7, 1958 w. H. WELLS ETAL 2,854,681

HIDE CLEANER 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Oct. 29, 1956 INVENTORS Wz'Z/z'awHh lls fiawldfiefien/ede #5 M M ATTORNEYJ United States Patent T HIDE CLEANER' William H. Wells, Caldwell, Idaho, and Frank J. De Benedetti, San Rafael, Calif.

Application October 29, 1956, Serial No. 618,811 4 1 Claim. (01. -92

This invention relates to a hide cleaner and more particularly to a hide cleaner of the rotary beater type.

The problem of removing dirt and manure from green hides before tanning is a major problem of long standing in the meat packing and slaughterhouse trade as well as to hide brokers, shippers and tanners.

During the wet and freezing winter months cattle hides are often covered by thirty or forty pounds of dirt and manure. The excess weight increases the cost of shipping and at the same time reduces the price per pound of the hides because of their soiled condition. A rapid and efiicient hide cleaner is needed for removing the excess dirt and manure from the hides prior to shipping to reduce shipping costs and increase the priceper-pound of the hides. Thus, the margin of profit from the sale of hides would be substantially increased.

The present available equipment for the subject purpose ranges from simple and inexpensive apparatus, such as garden rakes, to complex and costly hide cleaners. The cheaper apparatus is very slow and causes considerable damage to the hides during a cleaning process. The more expensive equipment is either too slow for good operating efficiency or, as in the case of the aforementioned garden rake type of equipment causes damage to the hides. a

The present invention provides a machine which is inexpensive, eflicient in operation and readily transportable to the desired site of the hide cleaning operation. No damage to the hides is incurred in the use of the subject machine, its utility being further augmented by the fact that only one attendant is necessary for the proper operation of same. In addition, the machine is entirely self contained with respect to all necessary apparatus for mobility and operation and therefore requires no installation expense. I

It is therefor, an object of my invention toprovide an efficient and inexpensive hide cleaner.

Another object of my invention is-to provide a hide cleaner incorporating a rotary beater as the cleaning means thereof. 'Anotherobject of my invention is to provide a hide cleaner which will not damage the hides being cleaned. -Stillanother object of my invention is to provide a hide cleaner which is completely mobile and self contained.'

1 These and otherobjects-of my invention will become the invention taken along line 3-3 of Fig. l; a

F 2,854,681 Patented Oct. 7,1958

Fig. 4 is a detailed cross section of'the rotary beater structure taken along line 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a detailed cross section of the rotary beater mounting bracket taken along line 55 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a detailed cross section of the wheel axles and the bracing structure therefor taken along line 6-6 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a detailed cross section taken along line 7-7 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 8 is a detailed side elevation taken along line 8-8 of Fig. l and Fig. 9 is a detailed partial cross section of one of the flails incorporated in the rotary beater mechanism.

Referring in detail to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings, the numeral 10 generally indicates the chassis of the subject machine. Mounted on the front of the chassis 10 is a motor generally indicated at 12 having a double drive pulley 14 to which is attached a double drive belt 16. The belt 16 is attached in driving rela tionship to the pulley 18 to impart rotation to the rotary beater mechanism (not shown in Figures 1 and 2) housed within the dust h-ood 20. The rotary beater mechanism will be described at a later point in the specification.

The drive belt 16 is effectively engaged and disengaged from the pulley 18 by means of a clutch wheel 22 which is mountedion one end of a pivoted lever 24, the lever 24 being pivotally connected at its other end to the chassis 10 at the point 26. At a point 28, midway between the ends of the lever 24, one end of a link 30 is pivotally connected. The other end of the link 30 is adjustably and pivotally connected to a clutch operating lever 34 at one of the points 32. The operating lever 34 is pivotally mounted on the hide cleaner pro pelling handle 36by means of a bracket 38. The plurality of points 32 on the operating lever 34 are provided to adjust the clutch linkage 22--243034 in order to compensate for varying degrees of slack in the drive belt 16. V

Removably mounted on the propelling handle 36 and the chassis 10 is a dust catcher pan 40 having handles 41 and 42 for facilitating the removal of same. An air duct 44 is provided between the catcher pan 40 and the dust hood 20 to prevent the blowing of dust into the face of an operator positioned behind the hide .cleane propelling handle 36.

A pair of side guards 46 are suspended from the chassis 10 and have mounted thereon metal shoes 48 which have a broad lower surface and ride on the surface of the hide to reduce the effort needed to propel the machine and keep the rotary beater mechanism in predetermined relationship to thesurface of the hide. The complete mobility of the hide cleaner is made possible by the pair of wheels 50 mounted on the chassis 10 by means of axles 51.

The mounting of the wheel axles 51-on the chassisltl is shown in detail in Fig. 6. Firm support is provided for the axles 51 by plates 53 welded to the chassis 10 and the axles 51 to form an inverted V-shaped support. The axles are also welded to the chassis 10. 1

Referring to Figures 3 and 4, the rotary beater mecha- .nism is 'shown to consist of a plurality of flexible flails 52 beater mechanism is rotated the flail supportingshafts 54 form a cylindrical surface of revolution about the drive shaft 62.

One of the pair of brackets 64 which support the rotary beater mechanism is shown in detail in Fig. 5. The drive shaft 62, shown with a key 63 for engaging a mating slot in the drive. pulley 18 is mounted in. bracket 6'4by means of a bushing 66; The bracket 64 is securely bolted to a bracket supporting. plate 68. A pair of adjustable bolts 70 are welded to the supporting plate 68 for the purpose of'raising or lowering the drive shaft 62to the desiredheight. Position locking nuts 72 are provided in conjunction with a bolt securing plate 74 on the chassis to retain the bolts 70 and therefore the drive shaft 62; in the desired position.

Referring to Fig. 9 the hide cleaning end structure of the flexible flail members 52is shown in detail. The flailmember SZ consists of central core 76 of laminated canvas .or other suitable fabric covered by an outer shell 78 ofrubber. Mounted on the tip. of "the flail 52 is a hide contacting plate80, securely fastened to the flail by a, pair of rivets 82. The outermost tip of the hide contacting plate is purposelymade with a blunt projecting lip 84 thereon which willfirmly contact and clean the hides but will not cut ortear them.

Theway in which the dust hood 29, air duct 44 and catcher pan, 40 are mounted'on the chassis 10 is extremely essential to the proper operation of the subject ma- 7 chine.

Referring to Figs. 3, 7 and 8', the dust hood is held to the chassis 10 at the front endthereof by a tongue andslot connection 86. The opposite end of the dust hood isrigidly attached to an angle bracket 87 on the chassis 10 by a flange 88, integral with the dust hood 2t) and a bolt 89.

The air duct 44 is rigidly mounted on the catcher pan by rivetedjmating flange connections 90 and 92 at the sides and backof the catcher pan, respectively. The catcher pan 40, inturn, is movably mounted with respect to the chassis ltl by a pair of reverse-J-shaped supporting brackets 94 on thehide cleaner propelling handle 36 having slots 96 in the bend of'the J which cooperate with a laterally disposed catcher pan supporting bar 98 extendingacrossrand attached to the upper surface of the catcher pan. On each side of the catcher pan 40 there. isan integral L-shapedbracket 103 which rides. on the surface of the chassisltltolimitthe downward movement ofthe catcher pan-with respecttothe chassis The leading edge 101, of the air duct 44 is freeto move in. an, upward, direction and limited in downward movement by the integral flange 88 on the dusthoodlfi which also, helps tosupport the air duct-catcher pa combination. A pair of verticalguidechannels 10 affixed to the,.-chassis 1,0, confines, themovementoftheair du t 44 and hence the air duct-catcher, pan arrangement to a vertical; plane. and substantially eliminates lateral displacement thereof.

The operation of the,hide, cleaner is, as follows:

The hide to be cleaned is spread out on a flat surface, such as level ground with the soiled'side up. The hide cleaner. is wheeled to a position adjacent one end of the hide fromrwhich it cannbe wheeled across same, At this point the motor 12 is started, rotating the double drive pulley 14. In order to actuate therotary beater mechanism, the clutch operating lever 34 is pulled back torthe dotted, line position shown in Fig. 2., The clutch operating lever, 34 transmits its motion to theclutchwheelzz through the link 39 and pivoted lever 24 to bring the wheelZZ into, engagement with the double, drive, belt 16, to take-up the slack therein hetween the drivepulley 14, and the rotary beater drive pulley 18- to actuate the rotary beater mechanism.

Thev hide cleaner is now pushedvacross the surface'of the hide whereby the flexible flails 52 of the. rotary beater mechanism whip the, dirt and foreign material from. the hide surface.

As the hide cleaner proceeds cross the hldfigihQ reasq v 4 for the mounting arrangement of the dust hood 20, air duct 44 and catcher pan 40 becomes apparent. The force exerted on the hide cleaner propelling handle 36 by the operator of the machine in combination with the weight of the machine causes the air duct-catcher pan arrangement 4440 to rock about the axis provided by the catcher pan supporting bar 98 in the bracket slots 96. This rocking motion is limited in one direction by the leading edge 101 of the air duct 44 acting in conjunction with the integral flange 88 on the dust hood 20 and also by the L-shaped brackets 100 on the catcher pan 40 which contact the upper surface of the chassis 10. Since the axis about which the air duct-catcher pan arrangement 4440 rocks is back of center, the weight of the air duct-catcherpan arrangement biases the rocking motion thereof in a counterclockwise direction as shown. As the chassis 10 drops toward the hide, the metal shoes 48 on the side guards 46 contact the surface of the hide and provide a bearing surface to distribute the weight of the hide cleaner on the surface of the hide and prevent damage thereto. The inertia of the air duct-catcher pan arrangement about its off-center rocking axis causes the air duct-catcher pan arrangement to act in shock absorbing relationship with the rotary beater mechanism.

The depth of the side guards 46, at the position of the metal shoes 48, is such that the tips of the flexible flails 52 just strike the surface of the hide with sufficient force to remove the foreign material therefrom without damaging the hide.

The speed of the flails 52 and the hardness of the flail tips 80 are such that the removal of foreign material is thorough and efficient. The flexibility of the flails, the pivoted mountings thereof with the bushings 56 on the shafts 54 and the smooth lip 84 on the flail tips 82 acting in conjunction with the shock-absorbing action of the air duct-catcher pan arrangement, which also prevents the full weight of the machine from resting on the metal shoes 48, serve to further prevent any damage to the surface of the hides.

The operator of the hide cleaner is protected from dust and flying particles by the dust hood-air duct-catcher pan arrangement. The air duct vents olf dust laden air from the dust hood away from the operator and all heavier particles of matter are thrown into the catcher pan by the action of the rotary beater mechanism.

From the above description it is seen that my invention provides a hide cleaner that is economical in operation, simple in structure, completely mobile in operation,

highly eflicient and causes no damage to the hide being cleaned.

I claim:

A hide cleaner of the rotary beater type comprising a mobile wheeled chassis, rotary beater means mounted on said chassis, driving means for said rotary beater means, a dust hood for said rotary beater means, a propelling handle for said hide cleaner mounted on said chassis and an air duct-catcher pan arrangement rockably mounted on said chassis wherein said air duct-catcher pan arrangement comprises a catcher pan having a laterally disposed supporting bar attached to the upper surface thereof and a pair of integral supporting brackets located one on either side of said catcher pan in operative relationship with the upper surface of said chassis and an air duct attached to said catcher pan at the sides thereof and at a position adjacent said supporting bar and having a free edge in operative relationship with an integral flange on said dust hood, said supporting bar being in operative relationship with a pair of brackets on the hide cleaner propelling handle to provide an offcenter rocking axis for said air duct-catcher pan arrangement, said free edge of said air duct and said integral supporting brackets on said catcher pan acting in cooperation with said integral flange on said dust hood and said upper surface of said chassis, respectively, to limit the rocking motion oi said air duct-catcher pan arrangement direction about said rocking axis.

in the biased References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Gregory Ian. 16, 1951 

